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The Culling
The Culling is primarily the Avali, Khaako's, personal name for the event, due to it seeming more like a pointless slaughter of his pack by the United Systems Colonial Marines who--unbeknownst to the Avali pack for a while--were on their planet as well. Before the Event '11 Days Ago' "Tread tracks?" Rharl questioned. "What could these even be doing here?" Khaako quickly caught up to the other Avali, lying down on his stomach and keeping his tail down as Rharl did. "I'm not sure. No one seems to be around right now, at least. We're pretty safe." "They look slightly human in design, Khaako," he continued as he sat up. "Besides telling the rest of the pack, what do you think we should do about this?" Khaako propped his head up with his hands, still lying down. "We follow the tracks from a safe distance and find points A and B. It's best we know where they are so we can evaluate how we're gonna keep away from 'em. I think we'll be able to figure out the rest from there." "Alright," Rharl responded as he stood up. "Hey, hold on." Khaako's hands lowered from his chin as he squinted his eyes slightly, looking further at the tracks. "Do you see that? Paper of some sort?" "I do..." Rharl hopped from their small, snowy perch, then walked over to the tracks to pick up the paper, with the other Avali following closely behind. "It's a schematic. It's meant to increase infantry effectiveness." "Military. They're not ''here for sightseeing, more than likely." "Yup. Means we better head back to the settlement, Khaako. Come on." 'Eight Days Ago' "I'm telling you, dammit, we're not your... 'benefactors'! What the hell would I gain from even hurting you anyway?" "Look here human, I'm not going to be here all damn day. Why don't you get going?" Tragguri replied with distaste. "I'm not in the mood for more of your cacophony of trying to convince me you're innocent." Melvin sighed. "I'm sorry, but that was 600 years ago. Or... something. People change. You're judging us by an entire... facti--" "They were a race." The Avali turned around, unwilling to hear any more of it. As he was just about to enter the tent behind him, he saw the nanocanvas curtain of their tent doors. It was Khaako and Vizzi. "What's the-- oh." Khaako knew immediately what was happening. Tragguri had a complete and utter hatred for humans. Khaako himself partially was, but some of him was at least reasonable. "Couldn't figure it out just hearing them talk?" Vizzi asked rhetorically. "My ears..." "That's because I was more focused on the rifles. I didn't ''want to know until it kept breaking my focus." "Look, I'm sorry, I--" "You better be," Tragguri interrupted. "We're a busy pack, you know." Melvin pulled a violin out of his case. "Here. I know you guys like music. If you won't accept it, then--" The instrument was quickly smacked out of his grip, making it fly to the left. However, Khaako already knew Tragguri was going to do that, so he moved quickly to catch it--surprising catching it from the appropriate angle to even begin playing. "You know better than to mistreat a good instrument, Tragguri." "Nothing that comes from humans is good." "What if some Avali were as evil as the benefactors, huh? Would the humans have the right to--" Tragguri waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, leave me be, Khaako." He walked inside the tent, not another word said. Vizzi glanced at the violin, then looked back at the human. "We're sorry about that. Tragguri isn't, uh... the best with humans." "I... didn't start something between you three, did I?" "It's fine," Vizzi replied. "Packs are like families. We're really close. Usually it'll take more than that to separate us. But like families, we can have different... outlooks." Melvin chuckled nervously. "I-I can see that, heh heh... Anyways, I'm sorry for the trouble. Like I said, you... you can keep that." "I won't say I can wholly accept humans as not connected to the benefactors of the past," Khaako replied, "buuut... I still try, even if the taste remained sour throughout the whole ancestry. Thank you." The human nodded. The three said their goodbyes, then Melvin soon walked off. "Can't wait to hear you play," Vizzi chimed, playing with Khaako's ears. "Stop that. I'll probably only do that when Tragguri is out hunting or something. The very sound of it'll probably annoy him, and I don't want that." 'Three Days Ago' "Everyone here?" Vizzi asked, looking across the room. "Khaako? Tragguri? Limio? Zorviki? Rha--" "The whole pack's here, Vizzi," Khaako reassured him, smirking. "I already checked for you." "Good." He started to pace, exhaling to relieve some of the tension. "Me, Khaako, and Limio went investigating the tracks we found some time back and we've finally managed to determine, while trying to stay as out of sight as we could, that there are indeed humans here." Tragguri lit up. "So that one human from five days ago--" "Isn't in any way connected," Khaako responded promptly. "Can we move on now?" Limio asked, leaning forward in her cushion. "If our pack's security is being threatened, we may as well leave or something." "My thoughts exactly," Vizzi continued. "They're heavily armed forces. Those tracks led from a landing pad to a hole in the ground, likely a bunker of some sort. I propose that we try to finish our work, increase our food stockpiles so that we can survive a trip even if something goes wrong, then place everything within our cargo containers to prepare to leave. We have to leave at night as well. The only thing they'll see are the ship's lights rather than the whole vehicle." "Sounds fine," Khaako replied. Vizzi's facial expression toward him depicting clearly that he was not surprised that he was quick to answer. An hour passed, and they all agreed on the plan for when they depart, all coming under one goal: evacuate the planet. During the Event Preparations "Everyone, keep moving! We need these goods prepared for packing up as soon as possible!" Limio exclaimed. The Avali looked at her wrist for a communication device. "Rharl, is the ship ready for take-off?" "Systems nominal; not a single flaw right now." "Good. We're still readying ourselves to load up the ship. All the tents were deconstructed and packed except for two. Think you can come out and lend a hand?" "Will do." "Thanks." She then switched to speak to Vizzi. "You two should head back. The transport's almost ready for lifting off." "Of course," Vizzi replied. "Any sign of human forces?" Limio asked. "None ye--" Stomping was able to be heard through the communicator. "Never mind." "What is that, a mech?!" "One armed to fight against infantry rather than vehicles." "Dammit, they're trying to make this a slaughter. Get back, right now!" "We're working on it." "Acknowledged. Closing comms; don't want them knowing." "Closing comms." Return "Lemme guess: things just got a whole lot worse," Khaako asked. "Not... exactly. If the others are as quick as we predicted them to be, we all ''should be able to escape just fine." "If you say so, V." "Don't call me that," he said, lightly slapping Khaako's ears. "We need to get a move on; this isn't the time for that." Vizzi looked down. "Wait for them to pass, then we can get down from this tree. We can't risk simply leaping from tree to tree, because we might make too much noise." After a few minutes passed, the human soldiers passed as well. The two Avali jumped off of the tree, landing safely on the snowy ground. "We'll need a detour. Are you sure we'll even make it in time?" Khaako asked. "''They won't be running. We will be. Now come on." Quickly, Khaako and Vizzi ran as fast as they could, away from human eyes, ears, and detection sensors. As the humans marched forward, the two Avali managed to return to the settlement just in time before the approaching hostiles arrived. They ran as fast as they could toward Limio, who was still directing the rest of the pack to get everything in their ship. "Is everything ready?" Vizzi asked, now somewhat short on breath. "Yeah, we're all ready," she replied quickly. "Come on, get in!" After all of the Avali were at last on board, Rharl quickly readied the ship for take off. But they were only a few feet off of the ground before a high-powered laser ripped through half of the ship, as well as its cockpit--which completely burned Rharl to death. "No!" Khaako yelled, feeling his body quickly descending after it felt as if they were so close to leaving in peace. His ears quickly were filled with alarms and minor panic--the panic being minor as Avali were not the type to panic, typically. "Everyone else's still alive!" Vizzi ran over to the edge where the first laser cut through the vessel, shouting "Jump!" to the others of his pack as he already was falling from the ship. Before he jumped however, he quickly grabbed Khaako's hand, bringing him along for the fall. The other Avali quickly followed, every single one of them extending their arms to glide downwards to break their fall. "Vizzi, look." Khaako said sadly, pointed his head in the direction of an entirely new squadron of human soldiers, one with an entirely different mech armed with two powerful laser cannons on its arms. "The team we saw wasn't the closest one..." The ship now torn apart descended much faster than the Avali. The smoke and darkness were unable to keep them hidden for long, and as a result the humans quickly reacted by setting up small, portable spotlights aimed at the sky. Upon seeing them, they began firing on the pack. Though two out of the remaining nine of them were struck by the bullets flying their way, none of them were severely wounded. They all then landed at the crash site, using the wreckage as cover. "Fuck..." Vizzi remarked under his breath. He raised his head, looking at Limio in the eyes. She only stared back, blankly. "I don't know what to do from here. We could try to send a distress signal at the storehouse, but..." "We don't have much choice now," Tagguri stated, also sounding fairly blank. "The wreck of the ship can at least span enough cover to get there, so we can send someone to send the signal. Though... we'll need to hope they don't jam it." "The other team we saw was coming from our left. We have no cover there except from within the storeroom," Khaako said. Vizzi shook his head. "The storeroom needs to remain intact. If someone finds us, maybe our stuff could be of use. This is assuming the humans don't go searching first." He then stood up as he continued, "But we don't have time to talk. The other team'll be here shortly. Keep them thinking we're here!" She then ran toward the storeroom. "None of them are to think we're in that tent!" Khaako stood up, then ran with Vizzi. "Wait!" Vizzi didn't stop, he simply flung the nanocanvas door open and ran up the stairs to the terminal. Khaako followed and lifted the tent door, the moonlight barely illuminating the interior. It was dimly lit by a crystal-like object sitting in a pot, perched on a metal crate. Grabbing a small crate, Khaako quickly moved up the stairs as well, just in time to hear Vizzi speak into the microphone. He placed it over his head, putting the microphone and Vizzi inside of it to cancel out some of the volume from getting too far outside. "Attention anyone who can hear this: human forces have attacked our settlement! We need help now! Coordinates: -17954239/-83244210! Repeat: coordinates: -17954239/-83244210! Help!" With that done, Vizzi calmly turned it off. "Thanks, I forgot about the noise." "Didn't quite sound like you to be so panicked." "Our pack is dying, Khaako. Some things just make you at least a tad uneasy, don't you think?" "I know... I'm just... not used to seeing you like this." He raised the crate, then quietly set it down beside them. Vizzi walked past him, still at the top of the stairs. Khaako moved closer. "I know you're not. Just like I'm not used to feeling this way." Vizzi turned back around. "But I'm not going to stand seeing our pack getting cornered like this for no fucking reason. I'm starting to see it unlikely we'll make it out of here alive." Khaako nuzzled Vizzi. "We'll see. But as for right now, what will we do?" Vizzi nuzzled back then said a moment after, "Stay here." He leapt to the lower floor, standing in front of the door. "I've one more plan, and I hope it'll work. Statistics show that this simply isn't going to work out well no matter what we do together." He pulled down the door. "At least for now." "Vizzi?" The Avali walked through. Khaako was then alone, his hearing much more focused on the firepower blazing left and right. "Dammit..." He turned behind him to look at the terminal, seeing two weapons on it. Walking closer, he knew immediately that he was looking at Vizzi's two handheld railguns. "Why did you leave these here? What on Avalon do you have in mind?" Grabbing them, he jumped to the lower floor as well, then raised the nanocanvas door once more. He only sighed as he walked over to the opposite end of the storeroom, his head down as he hoped for the best. A laser blast quickly shot through the nanocanvas to his right, it just missing him. He showed now care for it. Once he was on the opposite side, he sat behind the crates, his eyes on the door, his hopes high that no one comes inside. Then if I die, no one will live to tell the tale, he thought. It's necessary I stay alive. I ''WON'T ''die! Briefly, he glanced over the crates surrounding him. He saw one of the crates left there that held a Firelance inside. In between two other boxes was the location of his violin as well. He picked it up and placed it to another side of the room, hoping that at least it would not be damaged if something happened to the tent. Aftermath Khaako remained there, waiting for the fighting to die down--and to his dismay, it did indeed die down quite quickly. Hearing the rest of his pack fall, their familiar voices echoing inside of his mind as they yelled a depressive cacophony, the Avali could not help but feel helpness from where he sat. With his hearing being his species' most keen sense, he could easily tell when the other marines had finally left the settlement. Few shots went through the storehouse, leaving it rather undamaged. He was unable to tell for himself why they left it intact; yet all he could presume is that they would return to loot it or salvage it. Moments passed. With confidence that his hearing was correct, he stood up to undo the tapestry-made door and view the snowy outside once more. All he saw were corpses scattered about, the pack's ship still ablaze, and three of the other tents being completely broken, as they were unable to hold up to the magnificent heat of lasers that were fired by the USCM's mechanized units. Khaako fell to his knees, them barely implanting anything in the rather hard snow, his pistols gripped tightly as he swore to himself that he would find a way to avenge them--to do something about this mess. Proper burials did not feel like enough to him. His four ears perked, he looking up in the direction that they were picking up more people in the area. He could hear their voices, and very well. Standing back up, he backed into the storehouse and closed the door yet again. Quietly, he returned to his hiding spot behind the crates. With Vizzi's weapons still at the ready in his grip, he was not willing to give up so easily. Soon after, ARP commander Soof and NTR commander Lucius Richter found Khaako there. The Avali considered Lucius, a human, a threat due to being the same kind as the marines who attacked, as well as the physiological similarity to the Avali's benefactors. While reluctant and still carrying distaste deep down, he still tries to be as open as he can. After withdrawing to an underground ARP outpost on the planet as they were under threat of more USCM forces, they devised a plan to strike at their installation, with Khaako naturally being more than happy to assist with. Eventually, the NTR and Khaako attacked at night and bringing ruin to the entire garrison. However, the marines had dropped on the planet two mechs, which--after falling back to the settlement to recover the Firelance in the storehouse--were slowly destroyed, one by one. In orbit however, both Republic factions were engaged in battle against the USCM. After retrieving the Avali, who was onboard the New Terran vessel, ARP and NTR fled the system. From then on, Khaako continued on to act as a soldier for the New Terran Republic's forces, as well as a bodyguard of sorts for Commander Lucius. In addition, he assists the Altarus Republic in operations where needed as well. He resumes hoping to find Vizzi as well, hoping that he had a plan before running away that paid off. Khaako remains confident that Vizzi would be able to handle the leadership portion of the situation than he can. As such, his hopes remain high. Category:Avali Lore Category:Human Lore